Courtesy of http://come.to/ourdigitalstudio and Da'BlairMan.

As an engineer I've been in on this argument too many times. Protools has been around, on the digital audio platform, for some time now - all the way back to the time when Digidesign had the Session 8 system for PC.

I remember cause I wanted one so bad. SoundScape had a similar system that didn't last too long on the market. But the Digidesign system lasted well into the nineties to become the infamous Protools. But the main platform changed to Mac while only maintaining a token PC presence.

For a long time Mac was the reigning king when it came to digital image editing, with it's WYSIWYG interface and Postscript printing. They had it sewn up for some time until sofware manufactures started realizing that most of the offices in corporate America were using PC's and not Macs.

By the mid Nineties you could find all the Mac programs on the PC's emerging Windows Platform. By '96 Steinberg, Cakewalk, and Voyetra were releasing their versions of 8 track DAW software, with the anticipation of carving their nitch in the PC, and some in the Mac, markets.

Protools, because of it's long standing in the industry and sync-ability with DA88's, was king. A few companies came out with counterparts to compete with the Protools in the industry by creating PC interfaces for the now R-n-B and Hip Hop mainstay, the Alesis Adat. But they didn't stand the test of time. Some not ever making it out of the gate.

The Mac was considered the most stable environment for digital audio because the Protools system uses it's own dsp to push audio, not using the processor to accomplish this. But then there is a major upset.

Event markets its two initial audio cards the Gina and the Darla. Two 20 bit 48khz sample rate audio cards with multi-input output capabilities with onboard 66mips and 80mips dsp processors. Before this the best they could do for the PC was the pricey Session 8 cards and breakout box, that were proprietary to the Digidesign software, or a Soundblaster AWE32 with EMU sample capability and on-board memory.

The Event cards had killer latency, compared to the Soundblaster, and had, for the Darla, 2 RCA inputs and 8 out. If you wanted to output to your Adat or DA88 from your PC this would work fine. The Gina gave you 1/4inch HiZ inputs, by two, SPDIF in and 8 1/4inch outputs.

For the guy that wanted hotter outputs and digital inputs, this would work. Event touted that soon there would be a rack-mount system that would give 10 inputs and 12 outputs with midi.

Protools was still doing the Session 8 thing. The software got better and some enhancements on the actual card had been made and third party dsp cards were now available for using high quality reverbs and compressors.

By 2001 a plethora of audio card manufacturers would compete for the PC platform dominance while only a few for the Mac platform. The Latency issues had been conquered and the driver issues were corrected and were of no consequence anymore in choosing an audio interface. Prices and features became the subject of the audio card wars.

The PC platforms, from 97 to 99, were now focusing on software based fx processors that were CPU capable rather than dsp dependant. The only problem was that most computers in 97 and 98 could only handle the software and maybe two or three fx on the fx send buss.

Steinberg has really taken the lead at this time over Cakewalk and Voyetra, but they still remain in the loop. Steinbergs VST, by '99 introduced something on it's open platform architecture that would change the rules.

Virtual Instruments
Software based synthesizers were already in the making, but Steinberg start making them work inside the DAW software without having to have a midi loop-back program to make them function. Such synths as the old Prophet 5 showed up along with Native instruments B4, a virtual version of the Hammond B3. Protools is focusing on their pro recording market and not realy paying too much attention to the low end market. I think this was a big mistake.

In the Process of time, Steinberg comes out with their answer to Protools in introducing Nuendo.

In the next 3 years, from 99 to 2002, PC audio cards would become so powerful that you could get pro recording quality from a $200 card if you were a good engineer in the first place. Digital Mixers were paired up with audio cards with 8 inputs or more. Multiple outputs were no longer an issue now because the Mac and PC platforms now had final master and CD mastering Software that made it easier to Master your own CD's and never leave the computer domain. As time would continue this would be solidified.

Now we come to the final test. Do we buy a PC and use some software like Cubase SX or do we buy a Mac and stick with the Protools environment. To be honest this depends on what you want to do. If you are trying to do sound tracks for movies, voice-overs or recording live bands and want to be compatible with major studios and production houses, then you will want to do the ProTools thing.

The main reason is, especially for the movie soundtrack stuff, the industry is sticking with the ProTools platform. Most of the studios have spent extensive amounts of money on ProTools setups and have become accustomed to this environment. These same guys that have ProTools at work, most often times, use PC's with Nuendo at home because it is cheaper and will do the same thing.

For those of you that just want to record your own band and don't have $10,000 to spend on a Mac and ProTools just to get pro quality output, go get yourself a PC and Cubase with a digital mixer, audio card combo and be a happy camper.

The PC platform also lends way more to the midi musician that wants to create beats and use the many virtual instruments and fx packages that won't work in ProTools.

While PorTools is now trying to recoop this market, I believe it's a day late and a dollar short. Cubase and Logic Audio took the crown when it came to PC based DAW's with virtual instrument support. Now that Logic has dropped the PC market that only leaves Steinberg and Cakewalk. In my opinion Cakewalk doesn't compare.

In the overall category, it's my opinion that Steinberg's Cubase SX and Nuendo 1.6, soon to be 2.0, take the crown hands down over Protools, Logic, Digital Performer and Cakewalk.

With it's open architecture support, many features and real-to-life studio interface that's easy to use right out of the box, for those that are real engineers, you can’t beet it.

Which one should you buy? Like I said before, what's your purpose for buying the system, how much money do you have, and most of all, when it comes to Mac vs PC, which OS interface are you used to using?

The final outcome is going to be according to how good of an engineer, songwriter and composer, as well as your ability to take command of that computer and keep it running.

This is a fabulous article from June, 2003. Worth reviewing again!

Yes this was well worth putting up again. Thanks.

so what under 200 dollar sound card do you get now???

I use a m-audio delta 66 (24bit/96KHz which I guess you would call pro audio these days) coz its got an S/PDIF input which I can plug my EMU MP-7 straight into and very low latency. It might be slighty over the $200 but there are others in the range, I guess Creative Labs have one around that price range to.

is any 24/94 card considreed valid? even Creative labs?

I think Creative have come a long way since the days when they were considered just a gamers card, although Creative would not be a personal choice, (probably because to me it will always be a gamers card). I would say that any serious card would have to be at least capable of 24/94 these days, it must also have the right interfaces to meet your requirements eg s/pdif coax/optical as well as phono and midi, and also have enough in/outs too. Its important to get the right card so it pays to do some research. The addage is still true though, its not what you got its what you do with it

The best thing is that now its possible to get a pro recording studio thats affordable in your home, where better to be creative than your own surroundings and capture those little moments of magic.

FL Studio 4.xx!

Ok, I have new stuff to post to this article. Digidesign, for a long time was not offering ProTools for the PC platform anymore after Windows ME or 98. In that environment you could use whatever sound card you wanted with it. Now they have reissued Protools to work on Windows XP, but with one major fopa. You have to buy their audio interface. This sucks royal. Now while it is possible, if you buy their hardware to use it with Cubase, Cakewalk, Logic or Nuendo, you can not use any audio card with their software. This is really bad, because the cost of using their hardware price per pound doesn't compair to that of other audio interfaces. Let's take the Digi 002 and compair it with the Tascam 1884. Here's the Digi 002:
Features:

Single FireWire/IEEE-1394 cable connection
Simultaneously conveys up to 36 streams of digital audio, control surface data, and MIDI data
No PCI card needed
8 motorized, touch-sensitive faders
8 rotary encoders
8 scribble strips
Full customizable command of Pro Tools LE software
Works as a standalone digital mixer with EQ, dynamics, delay, reverb, and snapshots
24-bit/96kHz fidelity
Included 32-track Pro Tools LE software
8 analog ins and outs with 4 mic preamps
8 channels of ADAT optical I/O
2 channels of S/PDIF I/O
Bundled plug-ins include:
Digidesign Maxim -- world-class peak limiting and sound level maximizing
Digidesign D-Fi -- analog and retro signal processing
Digidesign D-Fx -- file-based AudioSuite multi-effects plug-in package
Native Instruments Pro 52 -- virtual version of Sequential Circuits Prophet
IK Multimedia SampleTank SE and AmpliTude -- Loaded soft sampler and amp box modeler
Includes:

Now let's look at the Tascam
Features:

Comprehensive mixing, automation, editing and navigation tools for DAWs
8 - 100mm motorized, touch-sensitive channel faders
One master fader
Dedicated controls for pan, solo, mute and select functions on each channel
4 bands of parametric EQ on each channel
Shortcut keys for various audio software applications
8 balanced XLR analog mic/line inputs with high quality mic preamps
Phantom power and inserts on every channel
24-bit/96kHz A/D and D/A converters; full 96kHz operation on all analog I/O channels with compatible DAW software
8 channels of ADAT lightpipe, stereo S/PDIF inputs and outputs
8 analog outputs for connection of L/R and 5.1 surround matrices
Dedicated headphone output
4 MIDI inputs, 4 MIDI outputs
Word Clock in and out jacks
Assignable footswitch jack
Up to 18 simultaneous inputs
Compatible with a wide variety of popular DAW applications

the tascam unit has everything that the digidesign unit has that most of us would use, motorized faders DAW control, bla bla bla.. and it has 4 midi in(s) and out(s) which the 002 does not. Pound But here's the real kicker. The digidesign unit is $22200 and the Tascam is $1300. They both will use whatever software you choose to use. Now the Good part about the 002 is the bundled software. But then again you can add Steinberg's Studio Case that has Cubase LE giving you 32 tracks of recording, it has eq's, compressors and other needed plugins already in it, they give you 5 virtual instruments; from guitars to synths and samplers. You can use your software with any interface you choose and the software will respond to all commands from your DAW hardware (1884). Hmmmmmm, O yeah and they both will work on PC or Mac; software and hardware. The Studio Case Software is only $199, so that brings your total for the 1884 to only $1500 plus tax. You still save $700 over the the cost of the Digidesign system and you don't get any better recording.

Check out MAudio stuff. Very good and they have USB interfaces as low as $149 with 24/96 recording and low latency to work with midi and Virtual Instruments.

correct: $2200 on the 002, not 22200

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